Tabs

Sunday, May 16, 2010

We Weren't Last

But we were damned close to last place in the World Series of Birding. The Seniors beat us. The teams that did only the county beat us. The team that did only Ocean City beat us. All of the school kids beat us. But we didn't come in last place. A few teams actually had fewer birds than we had.

First, let's say that the winning teams (yes, there was a tie for first place) had 228 species which is off from other years when they had over 230. Now, let's tell you that one of the winning teams failed to see White-breasted Nuthatch - a common bird that we have at our feeders. They also failed to get Cattle Egret which you can normally get at 80 MPH while driving down the Parkway. (click here to see the results)

Just like the winners, we failed to see the Nuthatch and the Cattle Egret. We also missed 110 other birds that they got. We ended up with 116 for the day. We started our day at 4:30 AM and ended at 8:30 PM when we turned our list in at the firehouse. We had alot of fun and saw some great birds including a life bird for me - Gull-billed Tern. Everyone contributed in spotting birds and keeping the day fun.

Next year, we have agreed to do it again but stay in Cape May County. There will be less driving, and we will still have a shot at 140ish birds. I think we can get 130. We are also going to get T-shirts and sponsors.